


Rough Start

by SilverDraconyx



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Interns & Internships, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark looks out for Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28259967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverDraconyx/pseuds/SilverDraconyx
Summary: Peter starts as an intern at SI, but nobody seems to want him to do more than fetch coffee.Tony is annoyed with the world.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 222





	Rough Start

“Have you stood up in the last hour at all?” she asks him.  
“Eh…” he tries to remember. “Have you?”  
It’s a stupid question, she’s standing in his doorway.  
“Have you looked outside the window lately?” She asks. “The weather might be really beautiful.”

_There are probably more meaningful or healthy ways to spend your time, than by reading this story. If something comes to mind, maybe you want to go do it. Even if it’s doing ‘nothing’. Otherwise: enjoy:)_

* * *

“Your first day of the summer internship,” May smiled at him. “Are you excited?”

“Very,” Peter grinned. Working at Stark Industries was a dream come true and he couldn’t wait. 

“Then go get your bag and I’ll drive you,” May said. 

“You don’t have to do that Aunt May,” Peter protested. 

“But I will, so go get your bag.”

Peter grinned and got his bag from his room. He had already packed it yesterday. 

“You’ll get free lunch there, right?” May asked. 

“Yes,” Peter confirmed. 

“Good, Let’s Go.”

As May pulled up next to Stark tower, Peter stared in awe at the building he would be working in.

“I won’t be able to pick you up sweetie,” May said. “But I’ll be home later tonight so you can tell me all about it.”

“Okay,” Peter said and gave her a smile and a wave as he departed the car. 

He walked into the huge lobby and to one of the desks. 

“Hello, I’m Peter Parker,” he told the lady behind the desk. “I’m starting an internship today.”

She looked him up and down then pointed him to the counter on the far left. “Get your badge there.”

“Okay, thank you,” Peter said. 

He walked over to the indicated counter. A young man sat behind it. 

He repeated the same phrase he told the lady and was handed a badge with his name, the SI logo and the word ‘intern’ plastered across it. 

He had to go through a metal detector, or potentially also other-stuff-detector, with the level of technological advancement at SI he didn’t think it was too far fetched. Then he entered one of the four elevators with three other people and entered the number 17 into the pad next to the door, like he’d been told. 

None of the other three people got out before him, but one woman got out on the same floor. 

Now he had to find the person he was assigned to. 

He’d been assigned to a college intern by the name of Marc Betting, who was apparently working on one of the easier projects, so he would be helping him. 

He walked to the first person he saw who didn’t look engrossed in their work too much. 

“Em, hello,” he said. 

The guy turned around to stare at him. “Who are you?”

“I’m Peter Parker, I’m starting an internship here,” he explained. “I was assigned to Marc Betting for a project, do you know where I can find him?”

“You know, if you’re starting an internship, he was supposed to pick you up in the lobby,” the guy said. 

“Oh,” said Peter. “Sorry, the receptionist told me to… I can go back down.”

“No no,” the guy cut across. “Marc’s over there, with the green flat robot.”

“Okay, thank you,” Peter said. “By the way, I think you missed a factor four in your equation up here.” He pointed to the paper the guy had been scribbling on. Then he made his way through the tables towards Marc Betting. 

The other intern seemed quite focused on the calculations that were on a translucent hologram between them. Peter didn’t want to interrupt him so he paused on the other side of the table. He could only see the inverted script from the hologram, but he thought he saw the problem. The screen said ‘energy usage’ at the top. 

“Why isn’t it working?” Muttered the other intern. 

“You probably can’t just multiply it all with the resistance,” Peter said. “You’d need to factor in the differences within the system…”

Marc Betting raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. “You must be Peter Parker.”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Peter confirmed. 

“Great,” he said sarcastically. “You could make yourself useful and get me some coffee.”

Peter stared at him. 

“Every floor has a kitchen, it’s just down the hallway, second door to the left.”

Peter hadn’t thought what he’d be doing would be getting coffee! Of course he’d heard that that’s what high school interns often do, but he’d had the impression he would actually be working on projects. After all SI’s representative had told him that the science projects he’d done in school and in his free time had caught their eye, not his coffee making skills!

Nevertheless he set down his bag and went in search of the kitchen. It was probably that Marc Betting was stressed or that it was his first day and he had to prove himself first. 

That evening he told Aunt May that things had been great. It would probably get better he told himself and he did enjoy spending time in SI’s labs, even if he didn’t get to build anything. 

It didn’t get better though. Many of the other interns and workers liked to make him get coffee or snacks or tools or parts, but no one allowed him to touch anything and no one listened to his suggestions on their problems. 

A lot of the time he sat besides Marc’s work station and just watched him. The guy still hadn’t figured out his energy problem, so Peter took it upon himself to work on the robot when Marc had to leave early one Friday afternoon. The college student had told him not to touch anything, but Peter was tired of watching him miss the obvious solution even when Peter had explicitly pointed it out several times. He couldn’t do a test run with the robot, because he didn’t have access to the testing rooms and it was a fire extinguisher robot to be used against wildfires so a test would involve spraying water and possibly setting things on fire for the test and he could only do that in a testing room. 

On the next Monday he was assigned to another project, because Marc had finished his robot. Peter wasn’t even surprised when he took all the credit. 

There were three employees on the project he’d been assigned to. They were working on a program that could tell the intent of another program, so basically a virus detector only different and better. 

The young woman, Mina, on the team gave Peter reading access to their code, telling him to double check it, maybe thinking he would learn something. 

Then she got sick and while Peter still had access to the code, the other two didn’t listen to his input at all. He did write it all down though, to give to Mina when she returned. 

Tony returned to his lab after his first good nights sleep in days, after Pepper and FRIDAY had insisted and bribed him to sleep. 

“Hey, FRIDAY, how’s the kid doing?”

“Specify,” FRIDAY said.

The kid was a fourteen year old from Queens who had caught Tony’s attention when an AI (that he’d created in his bedroom!) had begun to converse with FRIDAY. The AI’s name was Karen and FRIDAY had said that there was no maliciousness but only curiosity, when Karen had prodded her. The AI had even allowed him and FRIDAY to look at her code saying her creator was a supporter of open source code and since Tony Stark obviously could already make an AI, there was no risk of him learning something dangerous from her. While she wasn’t as sophisticated as FRIDAY, Tony had been very impressed. He had been even more impressed when he had found out about the fourteen year old that had created her and about Peter Parker’s other projects. The kid was a little genius, so Tony had discreetly suggested him to HR and made sure he got an internship. 

Now he just wanted to watch the kid flourish in SI’s amazing labs. 

“Just show me some feed of him,” Tony said. 

“Peter Parker has just reached the lab.” FRIDAY said and opened a live feed. 

Tony watched as the kid walked to a workstation and was immediately made to get coffee. He watched as Peter curiously looked at all the projects around him, but eventually just sat and wrote in his notebook. 

“FRI, what’s he writing?” Tony asked. 

“He seems to be working on the problem from the holoscreen next to him.”

FRIDAY showed him a close up of the kids notes. It was a complicated problem and Tony watched in fascination as the kid scribbled away. When he was done he stood up and turned to the employees still brooding over the problem. 

“FRIDAY, sound.”

“Hey,” the kid said shyly. “I was working on the equation…”

“Good for you kid, but we need to concentrate,” said one of the employees. 

“Well, I think I solved it,” said Peter. “If one of you–“

“There’s no way you solved it, kid,” the other said with annoyance in his voice. “Go bother someone else.”

Peter closed his lips tightly, then he carefully removed the page from his notebook and placed it onto the table without a word. 

“FRIDAY, show me his first day,” Tony said. 

It hadn’t been any different the whole three weeks the kid had been here, all the other interns and employees treated him like a useless child or regarded him with outright distain. No one ever seemed to listen to his advice, even when he had showed them multiple times that he was capable. 

Tony became angry. Angry at the employees and angry at the world. He had wanted to give the little genius a place to blossom and instead he was made to get coffee!

“FRIDAY, did the team the kid was working with notice his notes?”

“Yes, Boss,” she said. 

“What did they do?”

FRIDAY showed him the recording of how the employee had noticed Peter’s notebook page. He also saw Peter watching him closely, eagerly. 

The guy had glanced at the solution, then studied it, copied it to his screen and threw away the paper. He didn’t spare a glance at Peter. Even so a half proud, half sad smile formed on the kids face. 

“Did he at least thank the kid?” Tony asked. 

“He has not spoken to Mr Parker since then.” FRIDAY answered. 

Okay, enough was enough. Tony made a decision. 

Peter smiled as he entered the tower the next day. He would never get tired of all the amazing tech SI had to offer. Granted, he had thought his internship would involve a little less watching and a little more doing, but he realized that had been a hopeful assumption at best. 

Today he was alone in the elevator. As he entered the 18 for the floor he was working on, he was interrupted by a voice from the ceiling. 

“Mr Parker, you have been transferred to another project, I am taking you to one of the higher labs.”

“Oh… okay?” He said uncertainly. 

Peter stayed silent as the elevator moved up. When he thought they must be halfway up the tower, and what was he possibly supposed to do up here, he spoke again. 

“What floor are you taking me to?”

“Floor 78.”

“That’s like almost the top floor!” Peter exclaimed. 

“The tower has 81 floors, including the roof” the voice agreed. 

The elevator stopped. 

Peter stepped out and was met with tinted or blacked out windows and a long hallway. 

“Proceed to the second door on your right,” said the voice, not from the elevator, but from the hallway this time. 

Peter began walking. 

“Who are you?” He asked the voice. 

“I am FRIDAY,” she said. 

“You’re Mr Stark’s AI?” Peter exclaimed. “I mean an AI created by him, not that you necessarily belong to him,” he added as he thought of Karen. 

“Yes, Mr Stark created me.”

As Peter reached the second door it opened automatically and he was met with a wondrous sight. 

It was a lab like no other. 3D holograms, workstation with tech covering them, robot arms coming from the ceiling. There was an iron man suit in one corner! And to top it off, Tony Stark himself stood besides a workstation, looking at him. 

“Come in, kid,” he said. 

“Uhm, h-hi, Mr Stark?” Peter stuttered. He was frozen on the spot. 

“Come on, I don’t bite.”

Peter’s eyes widened, but he stepped into the lab and the door closed behind him. 

“So, what would you like to work on?” Tony Stark asked. 

“Uh…”

“There must be something swirling around in that head of yours,” Tony said. 

Yeah, thought Peter, lots and lots of questions and a decent amount of blank confusion. 

“What do you work on at home? I’ve seen some of your projects, and I don’t think you had anywhere else to make them than your bedroom,” Tony told him. “Now you’ve got all the greatest tech and materials at your disposal. So: What do you want to work on?”

“Well…” Peter started uncertainly. “I’ve always wanted to make a hoverboard. May said I couldn’t work on it anymore after it blew up the second time.”

“Great,” Tony exclaimed. “Of course your safety is important, so I’m trusting you not to do anything reckless. Testing room’s over there, don’t go inside, so you’ll be safe if anything explodes.”

Peter stared at him for a moment longer. 

“I-I can just…?” He gestured around himself. 

“Don’t Touch anything on that side of the room,” Tony indicated the far corner. “Tools and Materials are in there,” he pointed to a cabinet covering one wall, “or with me. If you need anything else, ask FRIDAY or me. I’ve cleared a table for you over there, has a chair and hologram and everything.”

Peter stared at him in awe. 

“Knock yourself out kid, but be careful, I don’t want to explain to your Aunt that you got hurt on my watch.”

“Why are you doing this?” Peter asked. 

“Your AI, Karen,” Tony explained. “She had a talk with FRIDAY, got my attention. You’re smart, kid, so I thought you might benefit from the internship. The people you were assigned to were being assholes so I took over.”

That evening, Peter could finally honestly tell May that the internship was going great. 

**Author's Note:**

> How do you all edit your text? Everyone has these blank lines between paragraphs, but I don’t get how to do that without extra effort. (Also, I’m on a mobile phone, is that the reason?)


End file.
